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Paper short abstract

Ethnology, folklore, and anthropology, practiced under distinct names today, are well established disciplines at the universities in Turkey. Yet, both their histories and historiographies reveal paradoxes and overlaps that go beyond polarization frameworks.

Paper long abstract

Ethnology, Folklore, Anthropology… They are well established disciplines at the universities in Turkey today with their own terrains. This paper examines the intertwined histories of ethnology, folklore, and (physical and social) anthropology in Turkey, disciplines formed through nation-building dynamics and academic politics, as well as through counter-narratives that emerged within the university. It traces their intertwined histories and tensions from early Republic foundations to current divides between these disciplines. Ethnology in the Turkish Republic grew out of physical anthropology and, from the 1950s onward, shifted toward US anthropological approaches and British social anthropology tradition. Folklore studies as an autonomous discipline, established in 1947 and closed in 1948, was revived under ethnology in the 1960s, established as an independent department in 1980, and finally regained autonomy in 1993, often swung between anthropological, performative, and literary tracks. Disciplinary historiographies remain uneven: anthropology is often prioritized in the national narrative (citing its 1925 establishment under Atatürk), whereas folklore and ethnology are portrayed as its subordinate. This "official" history also tends to downplay Ottoman origins, older debates, and the role of racial ideology in early Turkish anthropology, that impacted these disciplinary traditions in various different ways. Recent scholarship has begun to challenge this narrative, highlighting these legacies and the porous boundaries and tensions among ethnology, folklore, and anthropology. In tracing these intersecting trajectories, this paper highlights how Turkey’s political and intellectual history has shaped these disciplines and suggests new directions for their roles in the contemporary academy.